June 06, 2017

27 years ago windsurfing magazines were chock full of wonders! In this 20th anniversary issue published in 1990 (so there was a windsurfing magazine in 1970) there's a QA with US1111, a jump clinic, and Better Battens! I remember when battens seemed precious and specialized. They seemed to break a lot, too. When a sail was destroyed we would remove the battens and save them against our future batten needs. I think after a decade of carting my batten box around I finally ditched it. Hope I'm not jinxing myself.

What, the sailor? She's Brazilian champ Beth Modesto cruising off the pristine waters of Aruba, according to Aruban great Jeroen Westrate (from whom I stole the pic on Facebook.) I'll bet the guys used to fall over themselves to get her set with battens.

March 15, 2015

Wave sailing Aruba. Yeah I said it. Check out this photo of the mighty Jeroen Weststrate tearing up Westpunt, Aruba. Also check out the photo credit in the lower right corner: Dasher Films. Methinks something special is afoot down Aruba way. Watch this space...

December 14, 2011

For five years awhile back the wife and I went to Aruba at least once per year (all the way back to when she was "the girlfriend") and had a lot of good times and good friends there. When I stumbled across this compilation of local TV coverage of Aruba's Hi-Wind races (1987-2006...this is one of several pieces from the collection on Youtube) I started looking for Aruban friends.
I was surprised (just a little) when the first person I spotted was Long Island's mighty Bill DeGeorge, who always does serious damage to competing egos at the East Coast Windsurfing Festival, Fall Regattas etc. (He was top-five in the Masters division in the clip above). I haven't sailed in Aruba in a few years, but this clip reminded me of how much fun it was to rip in the Blue Highway when Fishermans Huts was going off.

If you need an Aruba fix (or would just like to watch some flatwater Carib slalom action from yesteryear) here's a slab for you. Go to Youtube to find at least five more.

April 28, 2011

He's done it. Chachi posted in the Long Island Windsurfing Group that Rich scored his first vulcan at Heckscher recently, which "took me almost 3 years and well over a thousand attempts." Rich was looking good and close last fall at the ABK freestyle clinic (photo by ABK instructor Brendon, above) so it should come as no surprise. I'll be he hits his next one before ABK arrives in late May. Congratulations, Rich!

March 16, 2011

T'was ten years ago in Aruba when I was out snapping photos of my wife windsurfing when Andy Brandt sailed by. Even back before freestyle windsurfing became the cool new thing, Andy simply could not sail in a straightforward manner on his own time. Here he is carving an inside-the-boom, back-to-sail planing tack, on a Bic Techno. These days when teaching freestyle Andy focuses on Vulcans and Spocks and Flakas and double Leapard loops and all things aerial, but if you ask nice he'll work with you on carving moves too. As well as jibing and tacking and waterstarting and everything else. Andy Brandt and ABK Boardsports come to Long Island for their Spring clinic on May 20-22.

May 30, 2008

We just got off the phone with Tony Kardol, who runs Vela Aruba. He says that the Marriot no longer wants to kick Vela out of its prime spot on the beach. Even better, the Marriot wants to build it a new building for sails and boards that better faces the sailing area to the north. And they want to better promote windsurfing to their guests.

All the Marriot wants is for the flood of email from windsurfers to stop. Well done, everybody!

As we wrote yesterday, the Marriot had planned to boot the center off the beach, which would have meant an end to the biggest and best equipped windsurfing center in Aruba. Apparently the Marriot's management didn't have a complete appreciation for the significance of what Vela brings to the area, and now that they do, they want to support it.

We'll be checking back with Tony and Vela in a few weeks, but so far things are looking good!

February 22, 2008

Our windsurfing minivacation ended with one more windy day (5.5 conditions) for a great five days of wind. Having been coming to Aruba for over a decade I wanted to close out this series of blog posts with bits of news on two Arubans who have taken on semimythical status over the years. (This is a post for the Aruba aficionado...the casual reader may not give a fin.)

Jeroen
At a windsurfing clinic in 1996 (the Imperato Brothers) the instructors made the point during their chop-hopping lecture that good air could be had in any water conditions, if your technique was solid. To dramatize the point, they spoke of "a guy in Aruba who can, off of perfectly flat water, jump over boats." He could jump over a bus, they said. He was insane, sick, unbelievable to watch, they explained. I heard variations of this story from other people who had been to Aruba, and actually got to meet the windsurfer (whose name is Jeroen Westrate) in 1998. He was a pro sailor (sponsored by Naish as I recall) though he stopped windsurfing professionally a few years later. I never saw him jump over a boat, but while I was sailing behind him he did get the tail of his board higher than my head (6 feet) with the nose even further up, in conditions that I'd have been challenged to clear my fin. So what's new with Jeroen? There's a photo of him windsurfing in a casino ad at the immigration area of Aruba's airport.

Anouk
Anouk once graced the cover of Windsurfing Magazine (someone else can tell you why...all I'll say is that all people involved are very nice) but that's not why she's a legend. Anouk was (and still is) a beautiful buxom beach babe who also runs a babysitting service. The typical Anouk story goes like this:

Husband: I found a babysitter to watch Junior.
Wife (after taking a look at Anouk): Oh yeah right...you're toast!
Husband: No, really...everyone says she's a great babysitter.
Wife: Let's see her prove it.

The thing was, Anouk was by all accounts an unbelievably effective babysitter. Kids love her, parents love her, and she's extremely serious about her craft (try talking to her while she's watching a child...it ain't gonna happen.) She now runs a baby sitting empire in the windsurfing area of Aruba, and is said to be very difficult to book (here is her website.) Google "Anouk" and "babysitter" and you can read all about her. People plan their vacations around her availability.

So what's new with Anouk? Just a quick item: Someone told us that she was watching six kids at one time at the Marriot...she wrote numbers on their foreheads and backs to make them easier to spot and wrangle.

February 19, 2008

When we came here last year we did not fare so well with the wind. Most days I was on a 6.2 to 7.2 sail and large boards...not exactly what you come to Aruba for, but then again February is not a particularly windy month in the ABC islands.

But fast forward 52 weeks and we are doing just fine, thank you! Principle sail for each day for me:

Highlights have included blazing through extra W-I-D-E jibes in the pooltable flat water, seeing a large sea turtle down by the wreck towards the lighthouse (there's a great rusted out wreck about a half mile north of the sailing centers...a beam reach takes you right past its stern) and generally having a great time in 85 degree air and equally warm turquoise water. Aruba doesn't suck.

The only frustrating bit has been the exaggerated gustyness of the wind on a couple of days, particularly yesterday. Windsurfing offshore winds anywhere is going to bring you into uneven air as the land plays its part. And it's well established that sailing downwind of the high rise hotels to the south of Aruba's windsurfing centers means negotiating wind shadows (unless you're several hundred yards from shore, hence only advanced people windsurf there.) But yesterday, even on the blessed "blue highway" running north well past the hotel area, the gusts were major. We're not talking "gustylicious" playful gusts that Sally was raving about earlier on the trip. We’re talking flipping a switch back and forth between 15 and 25 knots. If you were at full speed it could be negotiated, but it put a damper on my desire to try throwing anything more adventurous than a duck jibe (I got creamed in the middle of a push tack...the gust came just as I began the backwinding portion. Pow.)

I have on occasion criticized people who have whined about gusty conditions in Aruba. I felt that yesterday's conditions were exceptional, but I realized it was possible that I might have become...a whiner! So I sought out local expertise to get a more seasoned assessment of conditions, and approached "Mac" MacFarlane as he pulled board and rig up onto the beach. Anyone who has spent any time windsurfing in Aruba knows Mac...friendly guy, excellent instructor, and he windsurfs like a bat out of hell. I knew Mac would set me straight. "Mac, call me crazy, but in nine trips to Aruba, I think today is the gustiest day I've ever seen. Does it seem particularly gusty to you?"

February 16, 2008

We have returned for a February windsurfing spectacular. Just one day into the trip, the wind and water already surpass last year's trip.

Day One: Surfergirl 777 on a Neil Pryde 4.0 and JP Freestyle Wave 85, your editor on a Starboard S type 93 and a 5.2, and we were both well powered. The wind had a bit of North in it in the morning...the good news being that the hotels that mess with the wind to the south were out of play, the not so good news being that it was exceptionally gusty anyway. Still, it was a day to rip!

If you're not familiar with the windsurfing waters in Aruba, there is a reef perpendicular to the shore that separates two large sections of sailing area. Flags mark the three ways to pass the reef...there's an inside channel, an outside channel, and a lone flag that marks the end of the reef. The first time you go hurtling through one of the channels (which are only about 30 feet wide) it is an act of faith. On my first session of the day I went out through the first channel, carved a very wide jibe a few hundred yards past the reef, and then sent windsurfing board, sail and rider full-speed through the outer channel.

I somehow had missed the low tide warning at the rental center.

The good news was that first fin contact was light, so I had a full half second to realize that the channel was not safe (was this why everybody was sailing all the way outside?) and managed to get my feet loose in the straps before the second fin hit, which was not light.

Untangling myself from the catapult, I note that it's time to buy a new harness.

Still, a great day! Asked for a quote on Friday's windsurfing conditions, Sally paused to consider, and then offered "Gustalicious!"

If you gotta windsurf in gusty winds, may they be 88 degrees on turquoise waters.

July 18, 2007

When you step up to the registrar at the Huts College of Windsurfing (the instruction desk at Vela Aruba) you know you're in the right place. Back in Dasher's teaching heydey this is where I learned to jibe, but I always stared wonderingly at the exotic mysteries being taught in grad school. I secretly aspired to Psychology of Abnormal Jibing and Its Effects, but feared the required reading for Advanced Philosophy of Windsurfing Logic.

March 13, 2007

Q: What do 10,000 puffins say when a few more puffins show up?
A: Great! More puffins!

Puffins like to be together. And so it was that when Sally and Michael planned a windsurfing trip to Aruba, soon Karin and Massimo decided to come, and Dana and Andy were already going (with Una and Kai), and then Greg decided to surprise everyone by showing up. We were all there for relaxation and the wind.

Relaxation we got.

Wind...not so much.

And we also had a mystery.

With the wind planable less than two hours each day, many of us started grabbing big boards to cruise around on. Michael found some Exocet Konas hidden in the back of Vela...he'd recently developed a Kona fetish after seeing them on Surfingsports' blog...and so immediately grabbed one and went out. Andy did likewise. But after awhile Andy went back to shore, and Michael went cruising off for an adventure. A few hundred yards past the reef towards the wreck, Michael espied a bright blue shape in the water up ahead, so irridescent he thought it must be a piece of plastic carried in by the ocean currents. He sailed right over it, looked down, and saw a beautiful blue ray, with large spots on its wings. Moving at a nice pace, he was not able to stop on a dime for a closer look, and when he returned to the spot he thought it was, it was gone. A few more passes over the area, but the blue ray was not to be seen.

Excitedly, Michael sailed back to the launch at Vela and walked up to Dana and Andy to tell them. Dana replied "we saw that earlier...it was too blue to be real. Maybe it was a kite?" Michael says he's pretty sure it was a blue ray, but D&A are skeptical. "We'll sail over there and search some more" they say. The truth must be ascertained, they agreed. And so they searched. But they found neither blue ray nor blue kite or anything like what we'd all seen before.

What became of the blue ray? Had it swum away? Had its plastic ray-ass been dragged out by a phantom current? Nobody knows.

Except possibly Una. Una, who sat on the nose of the board Dana was piloting had the best view of any of us. When asked, she gave a mysterious look and just smiled.

February 26, 2007

We're not talking Gekko Flakas or Spock 540's. We're talking much cooler than that. When the wind dropped to subplaning in Aruba last week, Dana Tang and Andy Darrell showed the crowds how they do things back on their home waters. Daughter Una ("I'm not as good as my mother...yet") showed off her noseriding skills. It was impressive, it was cute, and it drew more sailors out on the water.

When the wind gets light on those summer weekends, some of us still like to get out on the water and have some fun. Props to ABK for spreading the lightwind gospel on Long Island (where we surely need it.) And check out a nice selection of basic nonplaning tricks on ClewFirst.com.

February 22, 2007

There have always been wind shadows in Aruba for the sailor who heads south of Vela's launch (where the high rise hotels play havoc with the trade winds) but had things got worse? What about the talk of a new hi-rise hotel being built straight upwind from the Fishermans Huts sailing area, where the wind has always been clean and steady?

After a six year hiatus (including 3 years with trips to Bonaire) my wife and I headed back for a quick vacation with friends, and while the wind was rather light (6.2 to 7.2 sails for me @165 lbs) I had plenty of opportunity to check it all out.

First of all, plans for the Ritz hotel that would have been built upwind of the windsurfing beaches have been cancelled. You can still find some old "our turf, our surf, no Ritz" bumper stickers on some local sailors' bumpers and trailers, but that's the only sign that the winds had been threatened.

And while there has definately been new construction down in the high-rise hotel stretch of beach "below" where people windsurf, the effect of that has been to jam the beaches below the Marriot. The Marriot marks the border between the commercial, built up mass-vacation culture and the wide open sailing beaches. (A note re kiting, which I rarely saw back in 2001: at the Huts area kiters are only on the the water before 11AM and after 4PM.)

The only construction we saw at all of note to windsurfers is the addition of a boat ramp just North of Vela. Boats have been launching there for years, but now will not have to gun their engines (and blow out the shallow sand) to get in or out. Tony in rec.windsurfing adds that this boat ramp "is only a temporary ramp to allow them to remove the rocks that used to protect the Hadicurari marina. The whole project will take a few weeks and the ramp will be removed when they are done with that. They are planning on building a new boat ramp for the watersports guys with waverunners and boats just south of the Aruba Phoenix, more than a mile away from the nearest windsurfer. Just did not want people to think that there is a permanent boat ramp being built right next to Vela."

Thank you, Tony!

Coming soon: reports on Puffins in Aruba, and a first date with the Exocet Kona.

(top photo: walking a sail from Vela to the water...the Marriot hotel to the right marks the end of the wind-muddling buildings.)

(bottom photo: Don't worry about the crane! It's lowering foundation blocks for a boat ramp, and word has it that even this ramp is just temporary. Behind, the clear shoreline of Fishermans Huts still lets the warm winds blow free. Fine me for the cliche.)

February 09, 2007

(An impending trip to Aruba after six years away has brought past adventures to mind. In that spirit, Peconic Puffin Classics presents:
Why I Really Love Aruba
The Unexpergated Version, for the Discerning Puffin
(In the summer of 2000, Windsurfing Magazine asked the editor of PP to write an article entitled “Why I Love Aruba” and provided a basic description of what they were looking for. PP happily complied. Upon receipt of the Puffin piece, an editor decided to “improve” the article to make it “more suitable” for their readers. Horrified by the changes, PP felt it crucial to get the Original Words out to fellow Puffins. Here, for the first time, is presented the original piece, Puffin-style, and all the “more suitable” stuff left out. But I am using the magazine photo that accompanied the article, showing someone getting fine air off of nonexistent chop. I hope everyone thought it was me. It was the amazing Jason Voss).
Why I Love Aruba.
As the plane banks towards final descent, my wife and I have our faces pressed to the window. "Look at everyone on the water!" We’re giddy…we can’t wait to Get There. What did we check a bag for? We’re idiots! We could have easily brought everything as carry on.
We land. We pick up our bag. Emerge from the airport into the breeze, grab a cab. Fifteen endless minutes until we get to our room. Drop everything on the floor, change to bathing suits, grab the harnesses, race to the beach. Get a 45-minute session in before the day ends, then grab a beach chair for the question and answer session with instructor Eddy Patricelli. With a Polar beer in tired hand, I glance at my wife, who is reflecting my own huge stupid smile. We are Happy. We are back in Aruba.
Five days later it’s Judgement Day. All week it’s been blowing a beautiful 5.5 with three-to-six inch chop on the inside. My jibes are getting wired, I’m ripping upwind, my wife has elatedly hit her first waterstart, but still, today is the Day. The day the instructor Dasher videotapes everyone sailing, and edits it into his weekly windsurfing spectacular, complete with soundtrack, to be shown to any and all at the Thursday Night Party. If you sail well for the camera on Judgement Day, you feel like a million bucks. In my four previous trips to Aruba, I’ve always been so exhausted by Thursday that I, well, felt like 1000 bucks…good but not great. But this time I’ve planned. I’ve rested for this day. I want to see myself on the small screen sailing like I sail in my Aruban dreams, the way I’ve felt all week.
I get to the beach early, check out a board and sail, and take a quick run to get the harness lines and footstraps dialed in. I make peace with my maker, accept my karma, run through my lessons in my head, and hit the water.
Cameraman spotted. I’m flying across the crystal clear water, seeing the shadow of my rig zipping over the undulating white sand four feet below. It feels so great just to be Here, Now, that all of a sudden it doesn’t matter, I’m just going for it, and so bank the board and rig hard over…switch feet…flip the sail…catch rig on broad reach, sheet in…and complete the best jibe of my life. I look back and Dasher’s lens is locked on me…he got it! I howl, tear back from whence I came, jibe (well again!) and return.
More great jibes. This is unbelievable. I’m having the best session of my life, and it’s just too easy. Teacher is smiling. Okay, let’s get wet…let’s try a duck jibe.
Earlier in the week I’d taken a duck jibe lesson, and had even succeeded in catching the rig on the far side of the duck without falling, but with the board dead in the water. Ugly, but the first step. Now I’m flying again towards the camera, the board and sail just perfect for the perfect wind and perfect water, bank in, flash back to lesson (don’t think about the sail, just keep carving) and catch the sail on the plane. Don’t switch the feet too soon! I don’t, and come ripping out of the duck jibe, and look back.
Dasher’s jaw is dropped…I am sailing way too well.
That night in the video, I get my own montage.
We’re booked for next year.

January 28, 2007

I once watched a friend slice mushrooms with a Rainbow V1 blade fin, but the full range of possibilities was revealed to me in the Gin Su Fin infomercial.

Starring Chef Alberto Benitez (then an instructor at Vela Aruba) and Dee Imbert (star of The Search for One Eyed Jimmy) this ten year old clip is a sampling of the early video work by Dasher, then the dean of the Fisherman's Huts University of Windsurfing in Aruba, and one heck of an instructor (he taught me to jibe, and I was TERRIBLE. )
(Editors note: Dee Imbert's comment about the Gin Su Fin are in "comments" below.)